According to Plan
by modernxxmyth
Summary: Jack's plan works, and Oceanic flight 815 lands at LAX with Kate in handcuffs. But she remembers. She remembers everything. Does Sawyer? Set right after the season finale. Skate. One-shot.


**Set right after the season finale. Skate, because there just isn't enough these days. **

**DISCLAIMER: **Not mine.

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**According to Plan**

They're on the plane, but Kate still remembers. She doesn't know if she's the only one, but she really hoped that maybe the plan wouldn't work. She thought she wanted it to, really she did. But they're back on Oceanic flight 815, and she's in handcuffs again, and now everything's changed. Because she _remembers_. And the sharp metal digs into her wrists, and she winces because it's been so long since she's felt that. She remembers the Other's separate island where she had sweaty sex in cages and ate fish biscuits for breakfast. She wore handcuffs then. She wore them a few times off the island, when she was still a criminal who hadn't been cleared. But she was back in them now and still a criminal with Edward Mars sitting next to her looking smug, still alive and shrapnel free.

Kate closes her eyes and pretends the plan hadn't worked. It makes her feel better. She can't feel the cool steel ripping at her wrists. She can almost feel the warmth of the island and the look of Sawyer's stubble against her neck. But the turbulence starts and Kate blinks long and hard. Were they going to crash again? It's getting ridiculous.

But it is a false alarm because all flights have bouts of turbulence after all, and that was nothing. The tail end of the plane didn't fall off and everyone was still alive. The seatbelt sign is turned off, and Kate wants so badly to get up, but she isn't free anymore. Maybe she is finally atoning for her sins. She won't get off for her crimes this time. Jack won't be able to work any magic, and her heroics never really happened did they? Just because she's changed doesn't mean she didn't kill her daddy. Kate almost cries but decides to do what she never got to before instead.

"I have a favor to ask," Kate states.

The marshal scoffs, "What's that?"

"Make sure Ray gets his reward."

"You kiddin' me with this, Austen?"

"He has a hell of a mortgage."

He shakes his head and laughs about silly convicts and how he'll never understand her.

Kate gasps as she sees Claire turn around, a few seats ahead of her, pregnant as can be. Kate stares, but Claire doesn't seem to recognize her at all.

Kate sighs and tries again to drink her orange juice. She almost smiles for a moment of thought when she realizes, at least she looks three years and some odd months younger.

The humor doesn't last because someone is brushing past her with shortish golden hair and a strong physique, and she realizes it's Sawyer. He doesn't see her because he is walking passed her, not toward her, and she wonders if he remembers. Claire didn't, so why should he? Of course, no one knows what happened to Claire, and Kate knows very well that Sawyer was still alive and well – _well_ being a very relative term what with his girlfriend falling down a hole and dying – at the time of the bomb drop.

Kate glances ahead of her and sees the back of a brunette man's head and a female blonde next to him. Their body language is tense and it's almost like their fighting. Kate has to wonder if it's Shannon and Boone.

She tries again to take a drink from her orange juice and almost drops it when she sees Sawyer coming back, towards her this time. Her eyes are wide and desperate that he will look her way, whether or not he remembers. But he's looking at the ground and she's frustrated. And then suddenly he looks up and catches her eye. He stares at her for a moment, and then he stares down at her handcuffs, and looks back up at her. She knows her eyes look pained, and she blinks, and he's on his way, back to his seat.

He doesn't remember. If he had, she was sure he would have given her some sort of sign. But all he did was give her a once over and leave. He was staring because she was a convict in handcuffs, and maybe because she was pretty. That was all.

Kate wanted to cry, and she spent the rest of the flight trying to keep herself from doing just that.

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The plane lands in LAX, and Kate doesn't want it to. She didn't think she'd ever wish for a plane crash other than that time they were headed back, but she does. Oceanic flight 815 lands safely at LAX just like they were supposed to, and Kate remains in handcuffs.

She knows Mars will take her to jail and will soon put her in a squad car, but she needs at least one last moment of freedom.

"I have to pee."

"No you don't," the marshal responds.

"I do. I have to pee really badly."

"No, you're planning on making a run for it."

"How the hell am I going to make a run for it? Stand outside the stall for all I care. I have to pee."

"Fine. But we're going to the men's room so I can be in there too."

"You just don't want to be caught dead in the women's room."

Mars glowers and grabs her arm roughly and drags her towards the men's room. She holds out her hands when they get to the stall.

"What?" the marshal asks.

"The cuffs," says Kate.

"What about them?"

"I can't exactly use the facilities with them on."

He points at the gun in his boot and says, "Don't forget I have this." He then unlocks the cuffs for her.

Kate closes the stall to the restroom and rubs her wrists. Tears stream down her face finally, and she knows that this is the last time she will ever be free again. The sentence will be long, and there's no getting out of it now. He knows all her tricks, and she hasn't learned any new ones – she hasn't had to. She's rusty and won't be able to escape with him right there with her.

Then Kate hears a loud grunt outside her stall and sees from under the door Edward Mars fall to the floor. She exits the stall in rush and looks to see who has knocked him unconscious.

"Hurry up, Freckles, we don't have all day."

Kate beams and takes Sawyer's hand, and they run hand in hand towards an exit.

They steal a rental car because they're both criminals at heart after all. They drive and drive and drive out of state.

"You remember," Kate whispers from the passenger seat. She's smart enough to let him drive because she doesn't want the Tom situation to happen ever again.

"I remember," Sawyer confirms.

"Thank you."

He ignores the praise. "It's not like I have anything left for me here. Why not harbor a fugitive?"

"We'll be on the evening news, you know."

"I should hope so. I've always wanted to be famous," he smiles cheekily.

They stop in seedy motels just for the nights and buy gas with sunglasses on. Sawyer buys her cheap boxes of hair dye, and they steal license plates from old, used car lots.

They talk about going to Mexico and realize neither of them speaks Spanish.

They eat fast food at midnight when the drive-thru employees are too tired to give them a second glance. They pull cons for extra cash and watch late night infomercials (for some reason, Sawyer always wants to buy whatever they're selling).

They learn more about each other than they thought they could. They learn to live together.

Sawyer learns that Kate likes cinnamon toothpaste and is a part-time vegetarian.

Kate learns Sawyer hates mouth wash and can't handle the intensity of Listerine. Even the citrus flavor.

They're friends.

Sawyer doesn't talk about Juliet much. He doesn't talk about Juliet much until one day Kate walks in on him in the bathroom near tears. They talk that night, and Sawyer finally starts to move on.

They go from California to Nevada to Colorado to New Mexico. They spend some time in Roswell because Sawyer has a conspiracy theory fascination. Kate can't get him to stop talking about Area 51 after that.

They're always on the go, always on the run. They never stay anywhere for too long because Kate knows better than to make that mistake twice.

She hopes Ray got his money.

They're friends for a while, and then they're lovers.

Kate sleeps on his bare chest at night, and Sawyer has a surprising love of holding her hand.

It's commitment this time.

It's not stolen, passionate kisses in the jungle. It's not giving his arm physical therapy after a gun shot wound. It's not sex against the bars of a cage. It's not jumping off of helicopters. It's real love this time around. It's different. It's still wild and crazy and passionate. They're on the run. It's dangerous. It's adventurous. Occasionally it's even mundane. It's reading Dickens before they go to bed. It's doing crossword puzzles when they snatch a newspaper from the street corner. It's trying desperately to find a hotel that still has a waterbed because both of them are desperate to know what sex is like on one. It's Kate stealing a pair of reading glasses so Sawyer won't have to squint anymore. It's Sawyer refusing to wear them for the longest time.

It's right. It's different this time. There's no jealousy. There's no deception. There's no uncertainty. It's different this time. It's better.

fin

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**Hope you enjoyed. I'd really appreciate if you reviewed this one. This isn't my usual style, and I'd like to know what you thought. So press the button will you? Unless it says execute on it because that would really just open up a big, unnecessary can of worms...**

**:)**


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